Is TV Watching Bad for Babies?

There's a school of thought that suggests a baby or toddler should watch no television at all, with studies finding that TV watching only leads to short attention spans and learning difficulties as the child ages. Before our children were born, we planned to keep TV out of their lives for as long as possible. It seems like common sense that anything our children can learn from television would be better taught by family and friends in real life experiences. It's an admirable goal, and if you have round-the-clock help and saint-like patience, one that might even be achievable. But if you have more than one child, and you have to make time to do your own housework, cook meals for everyone, etc., a practical approach to TV is probably the best idea. For our triplet babies, we've set a policy of letting them watch one Baby Einstein video each day. It's a good complement to their other daily play activities, and gives us a break to do some quick laundry or dishes. And for our seven-year-old, the policy is that he can watch one video a day, but he has to earn the opportunity by getting his homework done and keeping his room clean. If his room is a mess, or his daily chore isn't done yet, the movie has to wait. Ideally, we'd be Supermom and Superdad with the ability to keep everyone entertained and teach them about the world (and also get all the housework done) without ever turning on the TV. But until we develop those superpowers, we'll have to settle for a common sense approach to television and guard against it becoming a major part of their lives.